JLF at 19: Spectacular, spellbinding
Jaipur Literature Festival, the behemoth that changed the way literature was perceived in India, is back with another miraculous edition.
By Suman Tarafdar
350,000. That’s the official number of attendees at the annual Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF). Indeed, some visitors come only for a day or two – but many do come for the entire duration of the largest festival of its kind – and even stay beyond. No wonder then that the festival holds a primacy of place for hotels in the city. In its initial years, when the number of hotels - branded or otherwise, was significantly lower, there were even reports of attendees sleeping at the city’s railway station as hotel rooms could not meet the demand for the number of visitors. Even a cursory glance at hotel room booking sites shows rooms going at well over the average rates for the season.
Yes, in a city whose hotel demand is dominated by weddings and leisure tourists, JLF is an effective ‘blocked out’ dates scenario. As someone who attended all the editions in the festival’s first decade, and more sporadically henceforth, the city’s red carpet for the festival is an effective case study of how cultural events can cause a welcome spurt for a city’s hospitality market. Yes, most of the city’s top end hotel brands, including the Leela, Taj, ITC, Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Lalit and Anantara amongst others.
With over 500 speakers across 300 sessions, the festival is a behemoth, a literary mother lode that beckons bibliophiles from across the globe.
The festival, once famously branded ‘the greatest show on earth’, is now in its 19th edition – and still going strong. Besides the hordes attending in person, there are about “30 million in terms of our viewership numbers and about 400 million in terms of reach,” points out Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, which has been producing the festival since its inception.
With over 500 speakers across 300 sessions, the festival is a behemoth, a literary mother lode that beckons bibliophiles from across the globe. A huge reason for its almost fanatical following – numerous fans of the festival arrange their calendars around the festival – is its ability to get some of the biggest and most relevant names year after year. There are sessions in 25 Indian and seven international languages.
One of the biggest draws this year is Kiran Desai, whose The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny was shortlisted for the Booker Prize last year. As is Banu Mushtaq, who did win the International Booker Prize - and whose Heart Lamp is still igniting activism. Nobel Laureate Olga Tokarczuk, Esther Duflo and Kailash Satyarthi have sessions. Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan, Tash Aw, Tim Adams, Esther Freud – the list of literary authors is as ever quite extensive. The remarkably versatile Stephen Fry is Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the internet. Even unlikely fest speakers such as Vishwanathan Anand and Shikhar Dhawan have been drawn in.
In this era of heightened tensions, politics and politicians are in particular demand. Polish Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski is in Jaipur, as is Dr Karan Singh. The former Irish Taoiseach (read prime minister) Leo Varadkar reflects on a life in public service, from the fight for marriage equality to navigating Brexit. Gopalkrishna Gandhi reflects on memory, nationhood, and India's democratic journey in his latest work, The Undying Light: India's Futures. Even the elusive former vice president Jagdeep Dhankhar has been drawn out of his hideout!
Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts, flanked by Ila Arun & Tripti Pandey.
Namita Gokhale, Co-Founder and Festival Co-Director.
The Jaipur Literature Festival is an annual pilgrimage for lovers of literature, We live in a moment of liminal change, and our 2026 edition will explore our world through the lens and perspectives of the arts and the sciences, books and ideas, debate and dialogue, poetry and fiction, the creative imagination and the dreaming mind.
Namita Gokhale
Co-Founder and Festival Co-Director
William Dalrymple, Co-Founder and Festival Co-Director.
Each year we try to open a wider window onto the world, but the 2026 edition may well be our most ambitious yet.
William Dalrymple
Co-Founder and Festival Co-Director
We are bringing together some of the finest minds on the planet—Nobel laureates, pioneering scientists and ground-breaking historians, philosophers and novelists, poets and performers, in a spirit of genuine intellectual encounter.
Do expect many festival regulars, also fan favourites such as Javed Akhtar and Oxford mathematician and author Marcus du Sautoy. Poet Jeet Thayil, author Sudha Murty, professor Nicholas Stern with his new book, The Growth Story of the 21st Century', Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Anne Applebaum, historian Alex von Tunzelmann, the end is impressive as it is diverse, making conversations both on and off the stage unmissable. JLF, which now has about 10 international editions, plans to introduce the JLF Island Festival in Ireland, this year. Yes, this edition is also a precursor to year 20, which is expected to be a huge deal.
Of course, expect the unexpected. An unusual ‘theme’ this year – there never have been official designated themes at JLF, is ‘supernatural’, which has become a theme because there were so many books that have arrived at the same time, points out Roy. His own There's a Ghost in My Room is there, besides Daisy Rockwell Alice Sees Ghosts amongst others. Yes, JLF has never failed to delight, enlighten, enthral and widen every attendee’s mind, and this edition is no exception.
